Forest Wanderers
by fireflower297
Summary: Lily Evans meets a stag in the Forbidden Forest.


A/N: No idea when I initially wrote this story. Hope you enjoy, read, and review. I don't own these characters.

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Lily Evans was wandering the forest. Now, she didn't want to be doing this for a number of reasons which I will share with you. Firstly, if caught by any of her teachers, she would be in terrible trouble and likely lose her Prefect's badge. Secondly, the forest was full of creepy-crawly spiders, territorial centaurs, and scary wolves. She could hear howls in the distance, long and drawn out. Hopefully, she wouldn't run into any during the night. At least they would just be wolves, considering that full moon wasn't for another two weeks.

"Why on earth did I have to say 'dare'?" she asked herself. You see, in order to understand why she was in the forest, despite all of her fears, we have to go back to earlier in the evening…

Marlene laughed, causing her long, sleek hair to fly all over the place, "Truth!"

"Who's your current crush?" asked Mary, who had just finished her fifth bottle of butterbeer.

"The dog star," she answered with a smirk.

"Ooh!" chorused the rest of the girls.

"Lily's turn," the Quidditch fanatic said. "Truth or Dare?"

"Dare," the redhead stated confidently.

"Stay in the Forbidden Forest overnight," Marlene said.

" _What?_ " shouted Lily, jumping up, "I'll lose my badge for that!"

Her friends smirked at her, "Come on, it isn't like you have to kiss Potter!" Mary said enthusiastically, chugging on her sixth bottle. Lily's face turned pink. "That's your only other choice. And anyways, we'll sneak you outside with no work on your part."

Lily groaned. James couldn't be an option, with her luck, he'd probably try to kiss her back. " _Fine._ "

So Alice threw open the window, Marlene handed over her spare broom, Mary handed over a bottle of butterbeer and Lily sped out the window, wrapped in a heavy wool sweater, gloves, scarf, and cloak. Lily flew over the grounds and landed on the edge of the forest, right by Hagrid's hut. Hagrid could never be trusted to be too careful with his things, so Lily stole the coat hanging beside his door for an extra layer of warmth and hurried into the forest.

" _Lumos_ ," she whispered, her wand lit up in front of her and she carefully proceeded. A few feet in, she tripped, breaking the bottle in her hand. She swore at the glass bits that dug into her hand, stinging with pain. Then she noticed what she had tripped on.

It was hairy, large, and rather like a tree branch. Lily looked up to see dull eyes looking at her. "Shit, an acromantula!" Lily ran away as fast as she could. She had read that acromantulas ate one another after death and she did not want to stay around to meet a live one.

She started to hear the wolves after a few hours of running around. Hopefully, she wouldn't run into any during the night. At least they would just be wolves, considering that full moon wasn't for another two weeks.

"Why on earth did I have to say 'dare'?" she asked herself. Suddenly, she ran into something large and dark and gleaming. She prepared herself to apologize to the centaur before realizing it wasn't a centaur at all, but the most beautiful stag she had ever seen. Its antlers branched beautifully and it had gorgeous lighter brown markings on its face and body. As it looked at Lily, her heart cried out. Here was a creature, solemn and reserved, looking at her with pain in its luminous eyes, pain that she had caused.

"I'm sorry," she murmured. The creature nodded and bowed its dark head. "Do you actually understand what I'm saying?" Lily asked. The stag nodded again. "Wow," she breathed, "In all my life, I've never met an animal that understood what I was saying and responded the way you have."

Lily carefully reached over to pet the beast's nose. A sound came out of his throat like the purring of a cat. She chuckled, "I never thought that sound could come out of a stag's throat." The stag's eyes widened momentarily before giving her a pointed look. "Sorry," Lily said, sitting down comfortably against the creature's side, "My name is Lily." He gave her a content look as she nestled into her layers, happier than she had been in a long time.

When Lily woke up the next morning, all that was left of the stag was a note in the earth, saying: _Follow the lilies, my little flower_ , followed by a hoof print. She quickly spotted the trail of flowers. They appeared to blossom at her sight, as if she were the sun. It was a complicated bit of magic. The trail ended at Hagrid's hut, where she had left Marlene's broom last night. Lily hung Hagrid's overcoat back up and kicked off into the air, headed straight for Gryffindor Tower.

When she reached her dormitory window, she discovered it had been closed last night, but that the boys' had not. She glided into their dormitory and attempted to get out as quickly and quietly as possible. She had no such luck.

In the middle of her trek, the floorboards squeaked and James Potter shot up like a bolt, shoving his rectangular glasses onto his face. "Evans?" he asked with a slightly flushed face, shocked at the sight of her with dirt all over her pink face, in addition to leaves and twigs matted in her normally silky red mane. "What happened to you?"

"I, uh… I had… a late-night rendezvous!" she stammered nervously, growing increasing red-faced.

"Where'd you have it, the Forbidden Forest?" Lily nodded. "Merlin, who'd have thought it? Lily Evans had a late-night rendezvous before I even had the chance!" She fought the urge to stroke his face and pull leaves out of his hair. "Well then. Get to bed Evans!"

Lily nodded and rushed out of the boys' dormitory before she did something stupid. She headed back to her own dorm, where her so-called "friends" were all lying on the floor with drool coming out of their mouths. " _Wake_ _up!_ " she yelled at them. They sat up jerkily and looked around for the fire. Then they saw Lily.

Their friend had a scary look on her face. "Lily, are you okay?" asked Alice.

"No, I am _not_ okay! You lot locked the window!" There was a fire going in Lily's emerald green eyes and it looked likely to burn for forever.

"Sorry, Lily," whispered Mary as she massaged her temples, "it was cold out."

Lily was surprised at that, "It was?" she asked. "I was warm."

"Maybe you built a fire?" suggested Marlene.

Lily shook her head, "I… forgot something," she said, frowning briefly before remembering the stag and saying, "I'll see you all at breakfast."


End file.
